Identity
by Anders122
Summary: REVAMPED AND UPDATED FINALLY! Sydney thought she knew every secret a spy could possibly know, but someone close to her is hiding the biggest secret of them all. Will someone she has grown to hate hold the key she needs to uncover the truth?
1. 47 Months

Sydney Bristow sat in the local café, staring into space thinking about Danny. It was exactly 47 months ago to the day that Sydney had arrived home to find him lying dead in their bathroom. He had been murdered by the evil monster that was Arvin Sloane – her boss.

She remembered all the things they did together. How he proposed, how he cracked jokes, how he always wanted kids (which secretly she knew she could never have because of her job, the job that cost Danny's his life). She remembered sitting in this very café, sharing a piece of rich chocolate cake with Danny in the corner, which was now occupied with a young couple sharing a slice of warm apple pie. Sydney felt a surge of jealousy run through her and that very moment _he_ walked in.

His eyes scanned the room, looking for her. Finally, he found her. The girl glaring, in a daze, towards the teen lovebirds in the corner as she twirled her coffee with one hand and wiped her eyes with the other. He walked over to her table and stood behind her. She noticed a shadow fall over her table and turned around.

"Vaughn," she began, "If you are here to …" She stopped mid sentence suddenly as she saw who was standing there.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked.

"Sydney, I came to see how you're doing. I know what today is. It's been four years hasn't it? I'm so sorry. I know how you feel."

"What the hell do you know? You kill people for a living."

A group of girls from a nearby table stopped their loud who-had-the-most-myspace-friends conversation to stare.

"What did she just say?" One of them whispered to the others, her head tilting towards Sydney.

"Dude, killers are so hot. Did you not see the latest James Bond? Double O sexy."

He stared at them as they giggled shrilly. He returned his attention back to Sydney. She narrowed her eyes and whispered, "Just leave me alone."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out an assortment of coins and threw them onto the table before reaching for her handbag and walking out of the café.

One of the girls caught his eye. She twirled her long blonde hair between her fingers as she mouthed "You're hot."

Ignoring them, he followed Sydney out of the café and walked beside her, reaching for her hand.

"Sydney, I need to tell you something."

"What don't you understand Sark?" as she snatched her hand back from him. "Leave me the hell alone."


	2. Confused

Sydney opened her front door to find her house dark and lonely. "Just as I left you." She whispered. After a few minutes of looking through her fridge, freezer and pantry she realised she had no food for dinner. Sydney decided to call her Dad, she could use a little company – and some food.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Sydney? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. What are you doing tonight? Do you think you would want to come over? Bring some pizza or something?"

"Sure, I'll be here at the office until five, but I'll try to get to your place by six at the latest. Is that ok?"

"Yeah, that's great Dad. Thank you."

Jack Bristow sighed into the phone sadly. "Today's the day isn't it, Sydney?"

"Yes."

He understood.

* * *

Marshall balanced Mitchell on his hip, while reaching for the door. A trail of snot ran down his arm and smeared all over his front door knob. "Great. Just great. Thanks a lot Mitchell." He said, as Mitchell giggled to himself. He opened the door and looked down at a pair of sharp looking business shoes. His eyes ran up the visitors body until his eyes fell upon Sark's face. Sark was standing awkwardly, as if he had really no idea how he had landed on Marshall's front step.

"Mr Flinkman, hello. How are you?"

"Uhh Carrie!" Marshall turned away from the door. "Carrie! Take Mitchell!" Seconds later, a flustered Carrie came to the door, oven mitts in her hands. She took Mitchell away before looking back outside. She frowned at Sark and whispered to Marshall. He raised his arms up and shrugged, "I have no idea. I don't know. What? No. Carrie, don't be stupid. No! I'll be … outside!" he reached for the door and shut it behind him as he joined Sark outside.

"Sark. Hi. What are you doing at my house?"

"I believe you work with Michael Vaughn?"

"Yeah, of course. Vaughn's a real nice guy. In fact, he asked me to lunch the other day. I'm pretty jazzed." Noticing Sark's facial expression Marshall added, "Not that I don't miss having eggs with you! They were great eggs …"

Sark nodded slowly. "Michael Vaughn isn't who you think he is. Be careful around him. Please. Tell no one I came to visit you, especially Mr. Vaughn himself. And please refrain from having lunch with him." Sark turned and walked to his car.

"What?" Marshall cried. "What's wrong with Vaughn? Does he have, like, chicken pox or something? Sark!" But without even looking back at Marshall, Sark walked up to his car, got in and drove away, leaving Marshall bewildered on his front lawn.

* * *

"How's Nadia, Dad?" Sydney asked as she reached for another slice of pizza.

Jack Bristow took a sip of red wine before saying, "She's fine. A little worried about you though, but fine. Weiss makes her a lot happier these days."

"It's lonely without her here, but as long as she's happy with Weiss. Thanks for the flowers by the way," she said, looking at them sitting in a vase on her bench.

"Not to worry, I passed a flower shop on the way, it seemed only necessary." He said smiling. He returned his glass to the table as his face turned stern. "Sydney, you do realise you have to come back to work soon."

"I know." She said slowly. "I am, tomorrow. I just needed some time away from everything."

"I understand Sydney. Thank you for dinner, but I must be off. Get some sleep if you are coming back into work tomorrow, I don't doubt Sloane has a mission all ready for you."

"Great." she said sarcastically, smiling at her father.

* * *

Sydney entered the briefing room to find everyone already seated. They all looked up at her as she entered. Dixon and Marshall smiled at her warmly, but Sydney noted Sloane's annoyed expression. She glanced over at her usual seat, and all of the sudden, sitting next to Vaughn wasn't as fun as it use to be ever since Sark had spoken to her.

"Sorry I'm late." She said politely as she took her seat. Vaughn looked across at her and grinned.  
"Welcome back, Syd."  
"Thanks." She smiled.

"Quite alright Sydney, it wasn't as if we were waiting for you or anything. As you all know," Sloane began, after giving Sydney a dirty look, "before Anna Espinosa was taken into custody she discovered another priceless Rambaldi artifact located in Venice, Italy. Sydney, I need you to make a trade with her associate tonight. Vaughn, Weiss you will be backup. Please see Marshall for a tech briefing. That is all, thank you."  
And with that, Sloane stood up and walked out of the briefing room.  
"Someone's crabby." Marshall muttered.

* * *

Sydney arrived out the front of the building in which the exchange would be taking place. She and Danny had visited Venice once - but now was not the time to be thinking about that.  
She walked into the building, scanning the small, crowded restaurant inside for a minute or so until she finally identified the man she was looking for in one of the booths at the back of the restaurant.

"Boy scout, I've found Anna's associative. I'm going radio silent."

"Be careful." Vaughn said.

Sydney clicked off the earpiece and walked over to the man.

Her disguise consisted of a smart black suit she had bought from a local mall, with a short, cropped blonde wig she wore years ago as a bad Halloween costume. She sat down across from the man and stared at him. He had a small head with even smaller eyes, and as he looked Sydney up and down he smirked.

"Good evening. You must be …"

"Katrina Samson, I am here to trade for an artifact I believe you have. Let's not muck around, ok?"

"Ok Katrina, whatever you wish. I assume you bought the substance?"

"Of course, shall we?"

He reached down into his bag, which lay beside him on the chair and withdrew a rectangular, shiny instrument. "We shall. Here."

Sydney reached across the table, picked it up and looked it over. It seemed to be just like the one Sloane had wanted.

"Good, I am satisfied." she looked around her carefully before pulling out a small test tube from her pocket. She passed it to him silently and after he snatched it out of her hands quickly, he held it up to his eyes making the blue liquid shimmer in the restaurant's over head lights.

"I assume it is of enough power to leave any victim blind?"

"And a whole lot more. We have a deal?"

The man looked at her once again before saying, "Yes."

He casually picked up his bag and walked away. She turned her earpiece back on and turned her face away from the restaurant's crowd. "I have the artifact, Boy scout."

"Great job Sydney. Meet you out the front in sixty seconds."

Once again she turned the earpiece off and stood up, discreetly hiding the artifact under her jacket.

"Ms Bristow." He said as he walked into her.

Sydney moaned and rolled her eyes. "Not now. Why the hell is your problem? Stop following me Sark!" she whispered fiercely.

"I have something that concerns Mr. Vaughn that I believe you will take a special interest in. Take it, please." He stressed the last word as he pulled out a small file full of papers from under his jacket and handed it to her as his eyes scanned the restaurant, making sure no one was seeing this second exchange. As he turned back to Sydney, he smirked, noticing her outfit for what seemed to be the very first time. "My, my don't we look ravishing tonight?"

Sydney ignored his comment and with both the Rambaldi artifact and package of papers underneath her own business suit jacket, she walked past him and out of the restaurant hurriedly. She jumped into the CIA van as Weiss sped off into the darkness.

"Everything run smoothly?" he asked from the front of the van, eyeing her from the mirror.

"Yes, of course." She said adjusting the papers, before pulling the artifact out.  
"Here." She said, handing it to Vaughn.  
He smiled at her. She hesitated, but then smiled back.


	3. Suspicious

"Have you tried ringing her?"

"Yeah, but it goes straight to her voicemail. I'm really worried about her, I mean she has been through a lot in the last few years."

"It doesn't help that it was the anniversary on Thursday." Weiss said quietly.

"Anniversary of what?" Vaughn asked, confused.

"Dude. Danny, his death. How could you not know that, you're dating her aren't you?"

"Well, lately it doesn't feel like that."

"Are you ok? It seems to me you're the one acting weird here, Sydney's been totally normal when I've seen her. Are you sure you didn't have some fight that she's still pissed about?"

"We don't fight, Weiss."

Eric Weiss looked at his best friend. "You don't fight? What the hell is wrong with you two, everyone fights."

"We don't." he said again angrily.

"Ok, ok!" Weiss said raising his arms in alarm.

Marshall ran up to the two, holding a square silver instrument in his arm. "I did it! I was writing the codes wrong, see I put the tab where the real code should've been, but I walked in and I thought about this thing Sark told me when I visited him …"

"What? You spoke to Sark?" Vaughn said quickly.

Marshall froze, thinking about what he had said. "Yeah," he said, his voice shaky, "when we had eggs. Sydney wasn't here when this whole thing first started and I was kind of lonely, I mean I wouldn't have even gone but I walked past this café on my way to work, and I saw this guy who was talking in a British accent and obviously, Sark came to mind. Then I thought he would've been really lonely, right, I mean if I was lonely, he was lonely - living in a little cell and all – you know? When he was in custody - so I bought some eggs and we ate them." He took a deep breath and smiled weakly.

Vaughn frowned as Weiss, noticing his expression and the increasing build of sweat on Marshall's forehead. "Ok, I think we all need to take a break, especially you Vaughn you're freaking out at the simplest things."

"He spoke to Sark!" he said, pointing at Marshall.

"They had _eggs_," Weiss said.  
Marshall nodded. "And they weren't even that good Vaughn."

Sydney walked into the office and took a deep breath as she saw Vaughn being lead out of the tech room by Weiss. She didn't know what to think of him after reading through those papers Sark had given her. But one thing was true - Vaughn wasn't the man he said he was. She put her head down as she passed but before she knew it Marshall was by her side. He took hold of her arm and steered her into his own office.

"Marshall, what on earth…?"

"He shouldn't have told me. He doesn't know me, that's why he told me. Otherwise he would've known not to tell me!"

"What are you talking about?" Sydney said, confused.

"You can't tell anyone, Syd. No one. Especially not your Dad, he scares me. And Vaughn, definitely don't tell Vaughn. And not Sloane, he'll fire me."

"Marshall, just tell me!"

"Sark came to my house." Marshall stopped, looked up and waited for Sydney's reaction. She stared at him blankly.

Marshall took a moment before saying, "Well, he, um, he told me not to go to lunch with Vaughn. I thought he meant he was sick or something, but he looked healthy, a little agitated, but healthy …"

"When did he come to your house?" she asked, suddenly serious.

"Last night. Why?"

"No reason. I just wanted to know."

"This is freaky Syd, a KGB worker shows up at my house, how did he even know where I –"

"He's not KGB." Sydney said, a little more defensively than she would've liked.

"Right. Well, I don't know what's going on but I think we need to tell Sloane. You can tell Sloane, he doesn't really like listening to me for more than thirty seconds, he starts to get this twitch in his left eye and then-"

"Sydney." Vaughn opened the door as Marshall stumbled over his blow up chair, dropping the silver instrument he had been holding in his hand the whole time. It smashed on the floor.

"Oh no, Sloane's going to kill me." Marshall whined as he knelt down on the floor, picking up the broken pieces. Realising why he had dropped it in the first place, he whipped around and smiled fakely. "Hi Vaughn! Again. Yeah. Um …" looking around, "Look! Sydney! Wow, when did you get here? Aha .. err … is it lunch already? Must be going. Bye!" he ran out of the room, giving Sydney a sorry glance as he went.

Vaughn turned around, shut the door and closed the blinds.


	4. Threats and Kisses

"Mr Sloane?"

"Yes?"

"There's a disturbance in the Tech room."

Sloane frowned. "What sort of a disturbance?"

Dixon looked out of the doorway back to the room. "It seems Sydney is being held hostage by Vaughn."

Sloane rushed out of his office and within thirty seconds had reached the Tech office door, where Marshall stood, holding a broken tech piece Sloane had needed done for a mission the next say. Marshall was avoiding his eyes, but Sloane could see the beads of sweat dripping down his face.

"What the hell is happening here?"

Jack, Dixon, Nadia and Weiss crowded behind him with worried expressions on their faces. "Where is my daughter?" Jack asked angrily.

The office's windows were just sheets of silver as Vaughn had pulled all the blinds down.

Everyone stared at Marshall. "Umm .. I guess …"

Suddenly the office door opened, and Sydney exited, her business suit crinkled and her top button undone. Vaughn followed her, his hair slightly more ruffled than usual and his tie on an angle.

Sydney stopped, staring at everyone. Jack looked away as Weiss smiled, giving Vaughn the thumbs up. Sloane cleared his voice as Marshall turned around and stared at the pair.

"Sydney, Vaughn my office immediately."

Jack and Dixon moved out of the way, Jack's face a mixture of embarrassment and disbelief.

"I have no idea what gave you two the thought that this building is some kind of a hotel, especially the Tech room, but if any of you do anything like this again there will be consequences. I am highly disappointed in both of you. I thought you realized how serious this job is, I however was obviously mistaken." Sloane motioned with his hand that it was ok to leave and as Vaughn and Sydney both stood up, Vaughn caught her eye and winked at her. "Sydney, stay a moment please."

He waited until Vaughn had left and closed the door before standing up, walking around his desk and standing in front of Sydney.

"This whole incident seems highly uncharacteristic of you, Sydney. Is there anything you want to tell me? Anything at all?"

"No. Everything's fine. Sorry for the disturbance."

Sydney went to the bathrooms where she met Nadia standing in front of a mirror washing her hands. "Syd," Nadia said when she walked in, "what the hell is wrong with you? Your Dad saw!"

"Nadia," she said disgusted, "We didn't … you know. He …" she went over to the hand dryer and turned it on, the loud noise blocked out everything else as she went up to Nadia and whispered, "He threatened me. I know he's a double agent and all I need to do is prove it."

Nadia's eyes widened. "How do you know?"

"Sark told me."


	5. Go To Hell

The door opened and Vaughn walked in, keeping his eyes on Sydney the whole time. He said her name as Marshall dropped the silver gadget on the floor. Muttering he ran over to it, picked it up, made a lame excuse to leave the room giving Sydney a sorry glance as he left, closing the door behind him.

Vaughn moved over to the blinds and shut them, making the room eerily dark. He walked over to her, pulled up a seat and sat down.

Sydney looked him up and down. He definitely didn't look like a double agent. He was Vaughn, the good guy, the one that was always there for her right from the start.

"You will do exactly as I say if you do not want to be shot immediately as you leave this building. Are we understood? This conversation does not leave this room."

That wasn't the Vaughn she knew.  
"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me Sydney," he said, smiling menacingly. "Sark has contacts in high places, and even if I have no idea what gave him the urge to pass certain Intel onto you, he did, and that is why I am here. We can make this work out for the both of us, Syd. They know that we're together," he said motioning to the rest of the team outside the doors, "we can fool them just like I have fooled you and everyone else for years."

Sydney fought the urge to hit him right there and then. Instead, she tightened her grip on the arm chair making her knuckles turn white. Vaughn looked down at her hands, "Calm down Syd. This is nothing to get hyped up about, now you know the truth. That's what you're all about right? Knowing the truth?" Sydney glared at him, not making a sound. "Tell me. How did it feel when you found out the truth, Syd? How did it feel to learn that the man you love wasn't the man you knew?"

"I don't love you." She spat.

Vaughn chuckled. "Ok. Well, let me just cut to the chase then. You're a smart girl, but if you let anyone know what I am doing here, I will kill everyone you have ever loved. Which wouldn't include myself apparently, so I'll just save the razors for another time. But maybe Sark might be on that list?"

"Shut up."

He laughed again quietly to himself. In this brief distraction, Sydney heard Marshall's voice outside. She heard her name, and Dixon's urgent reply before footsteps trailed off.

Vaughn noticed her concentrating and heard what was happening. Vaughn immediately loosened his tie and rustled his hair.

"Undo your top."

"Excuse me?" she asked furious.

He looked at her. "Do you want me to call my associates and have Marshall Flinkman's family killed right now? Hurry up!"

Sydney breathed slowly. "Is this really what you've come to? Are you that guy?"

"That guy and a whole lot more, Syd. Undo your top." he repeated, slower this time and with added menace.

Sydney reached for her top and undid the button, her hands shaking. She crunched her business suit together, trying to make it crinkle as much as possible.

"Nothing I have said is repeated? Got it?"

"Go to hell."

Vaughn smiled and touched her cheek coldly, "You might want to check on the Flinkman family tonight. Bring a soft toy, Mitchell would like that."

Sydney stood up and walked past him, reaching for the door.

* * *

Arvin Sloane rubbed his eyes. He was getting too old for this. Possibly his two best spies going for it in the tech room? This was getting too much. He grabbed his briefcase and headed for the office door. He made a left turn and walked down the corridor, looking forward to having a glass of wine and relaxing when he got home. As he reached the car park, he grabbed his keys from his pocket and got into the car. Giving himself a quick look in the mirror, he noticed wrinkles and lined that didn't seem to be there this morning. What would have Emily said if she had seen him like this? Wait, what the hell was that? A pimple? It was in the middle of his forehead, a red dot. But suddenly it moved, and Sloane knew exactly what it was. He ducked just as bullets started firing. They hit the mirror he was looking into seconds before, sending glass shattering everywhere. Before he had the chance to try and make some kind of getaway, or contact the people inside, someone opened the car door and put a black bag over his head.

When his eyes next saw light, he was sitting in a dark room, with his legs and arms tied to the chair he was sitting on. He felt heat radiating from his temple and chest and realized he was hooked up to a machine.

"Is your name Arvin Sloane?" someone said from the dark. Sloane tried to focus his eyes but couldn't see anyone.

"What the hell is this? Who are you?"

"Is your name Arvin Sloane?" the voice repeated.

"Yes." Sloane replied.

"Have you spoken to any other agencies apart from the CIA in the last six months?"

"No."

"Do you have connections with any black ops divisions?"

"I was the head of SD-6, of course I do."

The voice was quite for a minute before asking, "Are you a double agent?"

Sloane sat, shocked. What the hell was wrong with these people?

Suddenly lights turned on and Sloane saw he was sitting in the CIA questioning room, with Dixon, Weiss and Vaughn staring through the window. Vaughn caught Sloane's eye but looked away swiftly. Suddenly, Sloane realized it was Jack's voice who had been asking the questions. As he turned, he saw it was Jack who was sitting across from him, near the door. Ignoring Sloane's confused expression; Jack rose and walked over to a guard standing by the door.

"Put him in lock down."


End file.
